Saturday, May 18, 2013

It’s
a beautifully warm day in central Florida and I am stroking a penguin.
“Jo”, a rockhopper, leans against my hand, while another penguin, a
pink-footed gentoo, tries to climb on to the shoes of my guide, Jim
Groener.

When the two penguins waddle towards each other, squawking and
pecking, I automatically put out my hand to separate them. Tricia
McDeed, an aviculturist who looks after the birds, laughs: “I can tell
that you have kids.”

We’re behind the scenes at SeaWorld Orlando with 247 clamorous
penguins – king, gentoo, rockhopper and Adélie – who are about to become
the stars of a unique theme park attraction.

Antarctica: Empire of the
Penguin, which opens on May 24, has the bold ambition of recreating the
Antarctic wastes in balmy Florida and letting visitors “walk with
penguins in their world”. It will, say its creators, be the coldest
theme park attraction in the world – kept at a constant temperature of
-1C and with five tons of freshly-made snow pumped in each day.

The
penguins certainly seem at home. McDeed explains that the birds here
are all descended from eggs collected in the wild in the 1960s and
1970s. Jo the rockhopper is hand-reared, the gentoo is parent-reared,
and both seem equally inquisitive and friendly. An arm’s length away,
three king penguins stand wing to wing behind a low barrier, watching us
beadily. Behind them another king penguin stands motionless beneath an
ice shower, wings outstretched, beak pointing up. To my right a clutch
of Adélie penguins is busy hopping and splashing in a pool.

SeaWorld won’t disclose the budget for its Antarctica attraction but
says it represents the largest expansion since the park opened in 1973.
Construction began in January 2012 and the exhibit covers a four-acre
site. Much of it is taken up by a vast, white building housing the
penguin habitat and the high-tech theme park ride that is the other key
part of the attraction. Around it are fir trees and “icebergs” up to
50ft high, built of concrete on metal frames and dripping with
toughened-glass icicles.

The shop and eating areas are housed in Quonset huts, prefabricated,
corrugated steel structures like those used in the past at scientific
research bases in Antarctica.

Once inside the main building, visitors board eight-seater vehicles
that resemble giant ice hockey pucks; these transport them through a
series of rooms, each colder than the last. Large screens show an
animated story about a young penguin, and the computer-controlled
vehicles’ motion is designed to mimic that of the animal’s – gliding
smoothly when it slides on its stomach, bumping as it stumbles.

Rather than moving along a track, the vehicles move independently,
allowing operators to offer “mild” rides for parents with very young
children, and faster “wild” rides for thrill-seekers.
At the end of the ride, visitors find themselves in the penguins’
cold, windy habitat, separated from the birds by nothing more than a
transparent wall less than 3ft high. Visitors follow a path through the
icy enclosure and can stay among the birds as long as they can bear the
cold.

“People are going to hear penguins, they are going to smell penguins
and they are going to get extremely close to them,” says Mike Boos, head
of zoological operations at the park.

The attraction’s designers claim the encounters will be unlike those
possible at any other theme park or zoo but committed wildlife lovers
can get closer still. From June, visitors will be able to sign up for a
45-minute “penguins up close” tour, hearing from the keepers, and
meeting and stroking Jo, his gentoo friend, and the rest of the colony.
-------------------------------------------Gretta Schifano was a guest of SeaWorld Orlando. Tickets cost from $79 for adults, $71 for children.

Live Blackfooted Penguins in HD - Monterey Bay Aquarium

Aquarium of the Pacific Live Penguin Cam

Listen to the Gentoo Purr

The Torgersen Island Penguin Camera

The Penguin Camera is located on Torgersen Island (64°46’S, 64°04’W), off the coast of Anvers Island and less than a mile from Palmer Station. Torgersen Island is home to a colony of Adélie penguins numbering approximately 2,500. This camera is seasonal and operates primarily from October to February, the Adélie breeding season. The camera is solar-powered and may sometimes experience brief outages due to inclement weather. School classrooms and other educational demonstrations will often take control of the camera, moving it to gain better views of the colony.